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`Emperor's New Groove' Doesn't Aim Very High, But It Hits The Spot

December 15, 2000|By Jay Boyar, Sentinel Movie Critic

The most remarkable thing about The Emperor's New Groove is that it is extremely entertaining and yet, in so many ways, completely unremarkable.

This new Disney cartoon is not, for example, a musical epic along the lines of the studio's Mulan or The Lion King. Neither is it a showcase for advanced animation techniques, a la Dinosaur and the Toy Story films, nor is it based on a classic fairy tale, like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid.

And the new film (which opens today) is entirely lacking in the air of high seriousness that attended Fantasia 2000, which featured a classical-music score to wow the rubes.

No, what The Emperor's New Groove resembles more than anything else is a Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon -- Scooby Doo, say, or The Flintstones -- but done with more wit and a more fluid animation style than Hanna-Barbera ever could muster.

It's smarter than the a-ver-age Yogi Bear cartoon, you might say.

Despite the title, the new film has nothing whatsoever to do with Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale, "The Emperor's New Clothes." In fact, The Emperor's New Groove was originally called Kingdom of the Sun and featured a plot inspired by a pre-Columbian legend.

Somewhere along the line, that title and most of the elements of the original epic-musical concept were scrapped in favor of an unpretentious -- and highly amusing -- approach.

Set in a mythical mountain kingdom, the film tells the story of Kuzco, a spoiled-rotten young emperor who learns to care about others after he's turned into a llama by a "scary beyond all reason" sorceress-cum-powerbroker. Helping Kuzco to see the light is a beefy peasant named Pacha, whose humble hilltop home Kuzco had planned to level to make room for a glitzy summer residence.

There isn't much more to the plot than that. Most of the fun comes courtesy of the movie's four main characters and from the actors who lend their distinctive voices to the production.

David Spade (TV's Just Shoot Me) brings his snarky, nasal sound to Kuzco, the emperor-turned-long-necked-llama. And, in fact, Spade improvised much of his hilarious dialogue.

John Goodman, as the gentle-giant Pacha, is a sweet-natured, warm-throated, poncho-clad version of Fred Flintstone -- whom Goodman has actually played in a live-action film. Like Fred, Pacha is a suburban type with a family including pretty wife (who is pregnant).

Yzma, the screechy evil sorceress, is voiced by Eartha Kitt. She appears as a death's head with Katherine Harris makeup and small, pointy breasts that seem to have minds of their own. (At one point, Yzma turns into a cat, a play on Eartha Kitt, I'm thinking.)

As that line suggests, the humor is mostly written on an adult (though not risque) level. But kids will enjoy it too.

Although the animation is much smoother and fuller than the Hanna-Barbera standard, the characters are drawn with that studio's flatness and simplicity. And the filmmakers are not above resorting to corny, ancient animation devices, albeit with an ironic difference:

From time to time, for example, devil and angel versions of Kronk appear on his shoulders to try to argue him into one course of action or another. The difference is that Kronk is too spaced out to take either one completely seriously.

The Emperor's New Groove was directed by Mark Dindal (Warner Bros.' Cats Don't Dance) and written by David Reynolds, who used to write for Conan O'Brien's show and who has worked on Tarzan, A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2. There are only two major songs, both with lyrics written by Sting, although one of them is performed by -- you'll never guess -- Tom Jones.

When you come right down to it, The Emperor's New Groove is one of the least ambitious and most enjoyable animated films to come from Disney since The Little Mermaid (1989) ushered in the studio's current era. I admit I feel a little guilty to be praising a production whose aims are so thoroughly modest, but I laughed all the way through this movie.

Besides, I've always felt that it's a mistake to look a gift llama in the mouth.